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Vaccine Eliminates Drug Highs

CHICAGO (AFP) - In a search for what could be the ultimate cure for drug addiction, scientists have developed a vaccine which prevents the body from getting high.

The hope is that it can stop people from falling back into a spiral of addiction if they have a relapse.

The most promising results so far have been with cocaine, but researchers hope it could also one day be used to cure addiction to methamphetamine, heroin and even cigarettes.

"The vaccine slowly decreases the amount of cocaine that reaches the brain," said Thomas Kosten, a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who has been working on the vaccine since 1995.

"It's a slow process, and patients do not go through any significant withdrawal symptoms."

The vaccine works by getting the body's immune system to recognize the drug as foreign and attack it in the blood stream.

It does so by injecting an altered version of the drug into the body which has been attached to a protein that the body will recognize as a threat.

"The body then says, 'This is a foreign article. I should start making antibodies to it,'" Kosten said in a telephone interview.

The cocaine molecules eventually pass through the kidneys and are excreted through the urine.

That stops the drug from reaching the brain and producing a sought-after high.

Use of the vaccine would lead to a gradual tapering of dependence, Kosten said.

"Gradually, antibody levels would rise. If you kept using (cocaine), you'd get less and less of an effect."

Of all the drugs tested, cocaine is the easiest one for which to develop a vaccine because of an enzyme in the bloodstream, cholinesterase, that helps break it down, Kosten said.

He has also begun to test vaccines for methamphetamine and heroin in animal studies, and hopes to eventually add nicotine to the list.

"That's going to be the moneymaker," he said.

The injections are designed for therapeutic -- not for preventative -- use, and are meant for those already suffering from addiction.

That, however, does not rule out other possible future uses, Kosten said.

"You could potentially inject pregnant cocaine users with the vaccine to prevent their fetuses from becoming contaminated," he explained.

Other uses could include administering the vaccine to high-risk adolescents in order to prevent them from becoming addicted early on, he said, while acknowledging that this would raise serious ethical and legal questions.

Testing for the cocaine vaccine has included a series of five injections over a period of three months, Kosten said.

The vaccine has one more large scale human study scheduled before it is ready for the federal Food and Drug Administration approval process.

A similar nicotine vaccine is also in the early stages of testing by several groups of European researchers. Kosten hopes to have the vaccine on the market in two to three years.

i've read about this before and even seen a couple of documentaries on the research but the one question I have that never seems to be addressed is this: The shot seems to only deal with the physical aspects of getting high. It doesn't seem to address the desire to get high. So, that being the case, if someone is given this shot and they have the desire to get high but the vacine is prevening it...do they run the risk of overdosing without even realizing it?

i've read about this before and even seen a couple of documentaries on the research but the one question I have that never seems to be addressed is this: The shot seems to only deal with the physical aspects of getting high. It doesn't seem to address the desire to get high. So, that being the case, if someone is given this shot and they have the desire to get high but the vacine is prevening it...do they run the risk of overdosing without even realizing it?

I think because it doesn't get to the brain you can't overdose. Just a guess though. I was thinking the same thing while reading

This is not a totally new idea I think, though the method by which it works is slightly different to current anti-drug-drugs....(?)

Zyban is used for nicotine in much the same way, though by blocking receptors and I think there's something used for alcoholics called either wellbutrin or champix (could be the same thing). Both are anti-depressants but have the by-product of reducing the effectiveness of the two above drugs.

About the overdose thingy though.....good point. I gather from the article though that this is quite a gradual process and that over the time the user ends up simply not seeing the point of taking the drug, thus desire is reduced. The user knows that they aren't going to get high but it is toxicity in the blood that causes overdose, fuck all to do with the brain I thought. In OD someone is simply poisoned or more usual has a heart attack first.

I could be wrong. I know my cigarettes and beer but thankfully my cocaine experiences have been few and far between.

One point: notice how the interviewee makes a straight admission about the nicotine vaccine being the money maker. No mention of saving lives or reducing hospital costs.

One point: notice how the interviewee makes a straight admission about the nicotine vaccine being the money maker. No mention of saving lives or reducing hospital costs.

Fucker.

LOL.

Well they are a business, not a charitable organization. Saving lives is great, but getting lots of money for saving those lives are better. It's kind of like turning in aluminum cans. Sure, you could do it for free, but you won't. You will if you get $.25 per can, though.

The guy works for a company with stock holders who like profits. If he doesn't produce profits, he is out of a job.

People like to rag on pharmaceuticals all the time for being profit oriented. Instead of bitching to them, go shit on your neighbors porch for buying stock in the company.

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